Pin fastener



g- 25, 1959 v s. LINCOLN 2,900,692

PIN FASTENER Filed Oct. 10. 1956 INVENTOR. FAY S. L\NQOL.N

a TTO ENE vs 2,900,692 Patented Aug. 25, 1959 PIN FASTENER Fay S. Lincoln, New York, N.Y.

Application October 10, 1956, SerialNo. 615,055

3 Claims. (Cl. 24-161) This invention is a pin fastener for attaching a tag to a piece of fabric. An example-f its use is in attaching a laundry or cleaners tag, or a-price tag, to an article of clothing; but as a fastener it is indifferent to the purpose or nature of the tag. The tag itself may be of paper, cloth or plastic; may in shape, size and thickness, and may pass under variousother names, such as label or ticket, according to trade usage.

Many forms of such a fastener are known, employing a wire with a sharpened or pointed end to pin it to the fabric and having various expedients for keeping the pin from being detached involuntarily but permitting detachment by some manual or mechanical step. Despite all of the effort that has been put forth in attempting to improve these fasteners, there still is a need for improvement.

My object has been to make a better fastener from the standpoint of ease and soreness of attachment, sureness of holding, ease of detachment, and absence of harm to the fabric, while also being capable of manufacture within practical cost limits as to the material and the production techniques required.

A preferred form of fastener which, as I believe, attains this object is described below with reference to the accompanying single figure of drawing.

My preferred fastener is made of a single piece of spring Wire, typically of No. 8 gauge (.020" dia.) for a garment tag, having both ends shaped to a point. The wire is bent to form two arms 1 and 2 of equal length which are twisted together firmly at an intermediate point to form a junction 3. The closed portion 4 between the junction 3 and the main bend 5 at the middle of the whole piece of wire is fonned as a loop which can be round, as shown, or of other suitable shape to serve both as a handle and as the part on which the tag can be mounted in any suitable way. For example, a tag represented by the dot-dash line in the drawing may be attached to or mounted on the handle portion in any desired manner.

On the other side of the junction 3 is the fastening part proper where the two arms diverge to form a generally U-shaped frame lying in a plane and shown here as including the angularly spaced sections 6, 7 and beyond them the generally parallel straight sections 8, 9. These sections may be partially or WhOllY curved, or of other configuration, to give a structure within the general category of U-shaped, the purpose being to space the arms apart to permit the terminal portions: to be turned in and also to provide a clear space 10 between the arms for the fabric.

The terminal portions 12, 13 beyond the ends of the divergent portions are bent back so that the pin ends 14, 15 come close together, preferably just touching, at a point within the U-shaped part of the fastener and lying in the plane defined by the divergent portions of the arms. They thus form an angular recess or re-entrant part 16, with the pin points 14, 15 at its apex, to renited States Patent Ufiice ceive the fabric. These terminal portions are of equal length and of symmetrical configuration.

The recess angle include between the two inturned terminal port-ions is preferably about 60, as when the respective angles between these terminal portions and the generally parallel side portions of the arms are about 30. Acceptable results can be had if the recess angle is somewhat larger or smaller, but for best results it should be in the range from about 45 to about The pinends 14 and 15 should preferably be Well spaced from the junction point 3 so that the point of attachment is not too close to the edge of the fabric and the width of the U-shaped space should be approximately as great as the spacing of the pin ends tothe junction 3. This allows the fabric to be jammed into thegbase o'f'the U-shaped space 10 between the divergent portions of the arms, and facilitates the attachment of the fastener to a fabric.

The fast'enercan 'be attached to'a garment either at a homer edge portion (sleeve, lapel, cuff, etc.) or to a fold, whether it be an existing fold or a temporary one formed for the purpose and having a well-defined crest of little width, comparable with an edge of the fabric. Such an edge or crest readily enters the angle 16 between the prongs 12, 13.

The manner of attachment is to insert the fabric edge or the crest of a sharp fold edgewise into the angular recess 16 between the prongs 12, 13, or vice versa, While holding the forward line of the edge or crest at substantially a right angle to the plane of the divergent portions of the arms 1, 2. The fabric and fastener are then pushed together edgewise so that the fabric separates the terminal portions 12, 13 and enters the space 10 Within the U-shaped part, preferably until the edge or fold crest of the fabric is pressed against the junction 3. The inturned arms or prongs 12, 13 guide the fabric so that its two sides pass over the points 14, 15, which continue to press against it; while the pressure of the forward edge of the fabric against the junction 3 tends further to cause the sides of the fabric to press against these prongs. A short reverse motion of either the fabric or the fastener then causes the points 14, 15 to penetrate the fabric from opposite sides and causes the prongs 12, 13 to pass through and form the attachment. The fact that the fabric can enter the space 10, beyond the points. 14, 15, assures attachment at a point Well in from the edge or crest.

Even a light degree of resilience in the arms 12, 13 is sufiicient to assure penetration of the fabric on this reverse motion; and repeated tests have shown that there is an almost absolute assurance of effecting a secure attachment. No manual pressure on the sides of the fastener is needed, for it attaches itself automatically when it is thus pushed over the edge or the fold crest of the fabric and is then given a slight reverse movement. Because of the small angle between the prongs 12, 13, a pull on the fastener after attachment does not cause the prongs simply to catch and bend backwards but causes them to pierce the fabric and cause the stress to be taken principally at the bends between the prongs and the side arms 8, 9.

In the ordinary handling of a garment, the fastener hold-s itself in place with great reliability. Nevertheless, its detachment is easily accomplished without tearing the threads. This is done by first bending the forward edge or fold crest of the fabric into an are around the point of attachment. The fastener is then turned if necessary about an axis through the sharpened points, and at right angles to the plane of the fabric, until the fastener lies along a chord of the are into which the fabric edge or crest has been bent. In that relative condition of the fabric and the fastener, the fastener can be moved along the chord until it is clear of the fabric. Movement in that direction is such that the pin points 14, 15 are trailing rather than leading, and there is no resistance to separation. r p

In this way, I providea pin fastener which can be described correctly as a push-on, push-01f fastener, easily attached and detached without tearing, and capable of holding itself'in place. It can be made of very -light wire, so that the prongs which penetrate the fabric do it no injury. Accidental detachment is almost impossible because it would require the highly improbable accidental concurrence of a particular deformation of the fabric edge or crest in the area of the attachment and a relative movement of the fabric and the fastener in a particular direction. Yet that concurrence is brought about very easily when detachment is desired.

I claim:

1. A push-on, push-01f pin fastener, for a tag, formed from a single length of spring wire which comprises two arms firmly joined together to form a closed lower portion, the free ends diverging from one another over at least a portion of their lengths and bent into spaced arms to form a generally U-shaped frame adjacent said closed lower portion, and having symmetrical pin pointed terminal portions bent back from the respective ends of the U-shaped frame to form between them an angular fabric-receiving recess with their pin ends contiguous to one another at a mid-point within the U-shaped frame and substantially in its plane, the maximum lateral spacing between said spaced arms being approximately as great as the spacing between the contiguous ends and the junction of the divergent portions, whereby fabric inserted through said angular recess is bunchable by jamming against said junction thereby preventing accidental detachment of said pin fastener from the fabric.

2. A fastener as in claim 1, in which the divergent portions terminate in generally parallel sections.

3. A fastener as in claim 1, in which the inturned terminal portions include between them an angle of from about 45 to about 75.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 479,163 Bradshaw July 19, 1892 511,238 Hieatzman Dec. 19, 1893 876,663 Smith Jan. 14, 1908 FOREIGN PATENTS 643,820 Great Britain Sept. 27, 1950 

